1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for removing solids from water in a canal in emergency such as during or immediately after a rainstorm when the water is too turbid for a waterworks to process.
2. Related Prior Art
In or immediately after a typhoon or rainstorm, tons of rocks and sand are washed to rivers and reservoirs so that water bodies used as water sources become gravely turbid. Time is often not enough for the gravely turbid water to deposit before it reaches a water treatment plant through a canal. In the water treatment plant, the gravely turbid water contains too many solids for normal equipment to treat and causes the normal equipment to malfunction. In the worst case, the water treatment plant has to be shut down.
There have been various devices for removing solids from water in a canal. However, the conventional devices include screws and motors for driving the screws. It requires a lot of energy to operate each of the foregoing conventional devices. The energy is generally provided in the form of electricity. In a blackout of the electricity system or failure of the motors, the devices will be shut down and block the stream. This could be even worse than the solids could do. The conventional devices can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,836,919, 5,110,461, 5,296,136, 5,372,713, 5,552,044, 5,593,597, 5,798,038 and 6,733,663 for example.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.